Transcript PETE 689 - Underbalanced Drilling, UBD

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PETE 406 UBD
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PETE 406 - Underbalanced
Drilling, UBD
Lesson 8
Introduction
Underbalanced Drilling Manual,
UDM:
Chapter 1
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Introduction
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What is UBD
Why drill underbalanced
Techniques and Limitations
Historical perspectives
Harold Vance Department of
Petroleum Engineering
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Text
• “Underbalanced Drilling Manual”, Gas
Research Institute, GRI, Chicago, 1997.
– Can be purchased online from the SPE ($61.50
for members), IADC, and other Petroleum
publishing companies
– May be able to get it at the TAMU bookstore
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References
“A project Management Approach To
Underbalanced Operations”, Signa
Engineering Corp., Houston, 1998.
“Mudlite Air/Mist/Foam Hydraulics
Model”, Maurer Engineering Inc., Houston,
1988
Selected papers and texts
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What is UBD
• Wellbore pressures “intentionally”
maintained below formation pressure in the
open hole section.
• Formation fluids flow into the well.
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Additional Definitions
• Flow (Live) operations;
– wellbore pressures maintained below formation
pressure and the well is intentionally allowed to
flow during drilling or completion operations
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Additional Definitions, con’t
• Gasified Fluid Operations (aerated fluid
operated)
– Operations intentionally undertaken with a twophase drilling fluid containing some form of
gas mixed with a liquid phase.
– Gasified fluids normally do not contain a
surfactant
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Additional Definitions, con’t
• Foam Operations
– Operations intentionally undertaken with a twophase drilling fluid containing some form of
gas mixed with a liquid phase and tied together
with a surfactant
– The liquid phase is continuous
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Additional Definitions, con’t
• Mist Operations
– Intentionally drilling with a two-phase fluid
having a gas as the continuous phase
– The liquid in this fluid system is suspended in
the mixture as droplets
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Additional Definitions, con’t
• Air Operations
– Intentionally drilling using a pure gas as the
drilling fluid.
– The gas can be air, nitrogen, natural gas, or any
combination of gases
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Additional Definitions, con’t
• Mudcap Operations
– Operations undertaken when the annular
pressure during flow drilling exceeds the safe
pressure limit of the rotating control element.
– Mudcap operations are not underbalanced
operation, but often are a result of drilling
underbalanced and employ many of the same
techniques and equipment
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Additional Definitions, con’t
• Snubbing Operations
– An intentional operation that employs either a
snubbing unit or coiled-tubing unit in order to
operate at surface pressures that exceed the
limits of rotating control elements such as
rotating heads or rotating blowout preventers
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Additional Definitions, con’t
• Coiled-tubing drilling
– Use of a continuous-spool of pipe to drill with
instead of the conventional jointed drillpipe.
– CT units were originally designed to operate on
live wells with surface pressure, without the
requirement that the well be “killed” prior to
entering the wellbore.
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Historical perspectives
• UBD operations are as old as the drilling
industry
– First wells were drilled with cable tool
– Cable tool drilling was underbalanced
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Historical perspectives
• In 1866 a patent for air drilling was issued
• First recorded use of a gasified fluid was in
West Texas in 1932
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Historical perspectives
• In 1938 mist was used by The Texas
Company to drill in California.
– Natural gas was continuous phase and oil was
the liquid phase
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Historical perspectives
• Interest dropped off using gas as a drilling
fluid until the 1950’s in:
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Canada
West and Central Texas
Utah
San Juan Basin of New Mexico
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Historical
perspectives
Natural Gas drilling in
West Texas
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Historical perspectives
Early Air Compressors used in air drilling
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Historical perspectives
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In the 1960’s, the
U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission began
to study the use of
foams to clean
wellbores as large as
60” in diameter
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Historical perspectives
• Until the mid 1980’s UBD was just a niche
industry, and only utilized in certain areas
around the world
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Historical
perspectives
Mid 1980’s Horizontal
Drilling
Became Fairly Common (Plot is
for three companies)
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Growth in Horizontal Drilling spurred
the resurgence in UBD (US operations)
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Until 1987 the maximum working pressure rating of rotating heads
was was 150-300 psi.
RBOP was developed with a working pressure of 1000 psi
Rotating control Devices
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More equipment development
• 1995 Varco-Shaffer introduced an RBOP
with a rated to 3000 psi
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Closed loop system
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Allows re-use of the drilling fluids in foam systems
environmentally friendly
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Nitrogen
Generation
System
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Electromagnetic MWD Tools
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Hollow Glass Spheres
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Factors leading to increased UBD
• Horizontal drilling
• Closed systems
• High-pressure rotating
control devices
• Electromagnetic
MWD systems
• HP HV compressors
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• Increased availability
of Nitrogen
• Better reservoir and
rock strength analysis
• Improved Hydraulics
analysis
• Percussion tools
• Ability to re-circulate
fluids
Harold Vance Department of
Petroleum Engineering
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PETE 406 UBD
Harold Vance Department of
Petroleum Engineering
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PETE 406 UBD
Harold Vance Department of
Petroleum Engineering
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